Women’s Frontline Groups Face Collapse as Sexual Violence Surges in Conflict
As of 2025, sexual violence in conflict has intensified at alarming levels, shattering communities and undermining life-saving networks for survivors. Over 4,600 cases of sexual violence in armed conflict were documented in 2024, a 25% increase from last year, according to recent UN figures. Women and girls form over 92% of the victims. More disturbing is the drastic 35% hike in child sexual abuse, an indicator of growing impunity for war crimes.
They range from areas of conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia to Sudan, South Sudan, Haiti, and parts of Eastern Europe. UN officials point to the use of sexual violence not as sporadic abuses, but as deliberate weapons of war—employed to terrorize, displace, and dismantle the social fabric of targeted groups. The consequences have been most severe for local protection systems, where women’s frontline groups, historically first to respond, are increasingly unable to function with shrinking resources and growing demand.
Funding Cuts And The Collapse Of Critical Services
The destabilization of women’s frontline organizations has not only been driven by violence but also by a dramatic drop in international donor funding. Since January 2025, the United States, traditionally one of the biggest gender-based violence donors, has cancelled over $400 million of direct funding. Combined with the withdrawal of several European donors, this removed nearly one-quarter of the world’s funding for women-led crisis response efforts.
The effects have been immediate. In South Sudan and Somalia, shelters for survivors have closed. Health facilities in war-torn DRC provinces report an outright lack of post-rape kits, and legal advocates and trauma counselors have been dismissed for insufficient funding of salaries. In displacement zones in the Sahel, frontline professionals report families falling back on survival coping mechanisms where protective systems do not exist, including early marriage or exchange of sex.
A UN Women global poll in May 2025 found that 90% of frontline services working with women and girls living in the midst of conflict had seen budget cuts in the past year. Where services are disappearing, survivors are being denied safe space to report abuse, denied access to healthcare or legal support, and denied entry into psychosocial recovery streams. The reversal not only multiplies personal tragedy but has also undermined decades of progress in furthering women’s rights in humanitarian law.
The Case Of Sudan
Sudan demonstrates the overlap of frontline disintegration and mounting violence. Ongoing fighting between the Sudan Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has produced systematic reporting on sexual violence, with more than 330 allegations in early 2025 alone. UN agencies and human rights monitors warn that the figure likely undercounts actual scale, as displacement, stigma, and fear have made reporting painfully difficult.
Women’s groups operating in Khartoum and Darfur have also been directly targeted. Community-run clinics have been forced closed, protection centers have been robbed, and female activists have been arrested. They once had a central role in documenting abuse, referring cases, and campaigning for justice. Their loss has created an information gap and left survivors isolated in danger.
The Case Of Ukraine
In Ukraine, as well, where ongoing instability is the outcome of decades of war and occupation, frontline networks have been left in shambles. The Ukrainian Foundation for Public Health was forced to shut down its operations in three regions after it lost foreign funding. It affected more than 10,000 clients on a monthly basis, the majority being displaced children and women who were getting trauma treatment, legal aid, and primary medical care.
Local protection actors currently report that border and frontline area survivors are either left unattended or are being registered in under-resourced public systems. This reality is compounded by increasing evidence of sexual violence committed by both occupying forces and criminal networks preying on vulnerable populations in lawless ground.
International Policy Response And Funding Gaps
The UN leadership has returned with emergency appeals, but progress has been minimal. In the June 2025 Security Council dialogue on Women, Peace and Security, Special Representative Pramila Patten reaffirmed that “we cannot speak about peace without funding the institutions which make peace possible.” She cited initiatives such as the UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict network, which has continued to support survivors in 18 nations in spite of severe reductions.
However, the broader policy reaction remains fragmented. Foreign donors have not yet filled the United States gap, and voluntary contributions are irregular. Pooled emergency funds to shield women have been delayed by bureaucracy attempts. Most community leaders think that unless they are reinvested swiftly, recovery will not be possible.
Advocacy Voices And The Broader Impact Of Inaction
In highlighting the importance of the cause, campaigners from throughout the world have taken the lead. Among them was author and human rights activist Hen Mazzig, who highlighted the growing contradiction between rising world defense expenditures and falling investment in human protection fundamentals. According to Mazzig, as he posted on social media:
“The silence around collapsing support systems is not just neglect, it removes oversight and increases impunity.”
BREAKING: Top UN official on Sexual Violence speaking to the Security Council today about the horrors committed by Hamas against Israelis.
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) March 11, 2024
She has sat through hours of footage and interviews for the sake of victims.
Thank you, Pramila Patten, for giving the victims a voice. pic.twitter.com/l2bviVP8Fp
This vignette speaks to a deeper issue in civil society: that the closure of women-headed protection organizations is not just a loss of service but also of institutional memory and advocacy muscle. When they close their doors, survivors are denied culturally competent care. But equally significant is the loss of institutions that can make perpetrators accountable, educate post-conflict law, and ensure that round two of peacebuilding includes women’s voices.
Activists warn this void provides greater leverage to those who use sexual violence as a tactic of war. In the absence of field monitors, coordinated reporting, and survivor networks, the global community risks losing access to evidence of potentially war crimes or crimes against humanity. And with fewer local experts to engage in transitional justice processes, opportunities to rebuild gender-equitable institutions following conflict recede further.
The breakdown of frontline women’s groups in 2025 is not just a practical problem but a political and moral crisis. The global architecture for protecting civilians in war, and most importantly the most vulnerable among them, depends on accountable local facilitators. As their means disappear and room to maneuver narrows, survivors are left with a world where impunity prevails and justice recedes. It is how and if the world responds that will shape gendered violence, blame, and recovery for generations to come.
